St. Landry democrat., 1887-02-12

vulture, as between day and night.
| Tremendous delusion.
Admiral Farragut, one of the most ad-
mired men Of the American navy, early
became victim of this Christian delusion,
and seated, not long before his death, at
| Long Branch, he was giving some friends
an account of his early life. He said:
"My father went down in behalf Of the United
| States Government to put an end to Aaron
| Burr's rebellion. was cabin-bo and went
| along with him. I could swear like an old salt:
1 could gamble in every style Of gambling; 1
! knew all the wickedness there was at that
| time abroad One day my father cleared every
| body out OF the cabin except myself and locked
the doors. He said David, what are you 60
ing to do? What are you going to be?' Well
said, father, am going to follow the sea-
Follow the sea, and be poor, miserable,
| drunken sailor, kicked and cuffed about
the world and die of fever in a foreign hos
| pitalr 'Oh, no. I said, father, I will
not be that; I will tread the quarter
deck and command, as you do No, David,
my father said, no, David person that has
| your principles and your bad habits will never
| tread the quarter deck or command MY faith
er went out and shut the door after him, and
| said then: L will change 1 will never swear
again; l will never drink again; I will never
| gamble again. And gentlemen, by the help
| Of God, have kept those three vows to this
| time soon after that became Christian and
that decided my fate for time and for eternity"
Another captive of this great Christian
! delusion! There goes Saul of Tarsus on
horseback at full gallop. Where is he
goinga To destroy all Christians. He
wants no better play-spell than to stand and
watch the hats and coats of the murderers
who are massacreing Gods children There
goes the same man. This time he is afoot.
hnr &c ho rrniy, nj no WOO
to Ostia to die for Christ. They tried to
whip it out of him; they tried to scare
it out of him; they thought they
would give him enough of it
by putting HIM into a windowless dungeon,
| and keeping him On small diet, and deny
ing him cloak, and condemning him as q
criminal, and bowling at hum through the
street. But they could not freeze it out OF
him, and they could not sweat it out OF
him, and they could not pound it out Of
him, so they tried the surgery Of the sword,
and one summer day in 65 he was decapi-
tated. Perhaps the mightiest intellect of
the 5000 years of the worlds existence was
hoodwinked, cheated, cajoled, duped by
! the Christian religion.
All! that is the remarkable thing about
this delusion of Christianity, it overpowers
the strongest intellects. Gather the crit
les, secular and religious, of this country
together, and put a vote to them as to
which is the greatest book ever written,
and by large majority they will say
paradise Lost" Who wrote paradise
Lostl" One of the fools that believed in
this Bible, John Milton.
Benjamin Franklin surrendered to this
delusion, if you may judge from the letter
he wrote to Thomas Paine, begging him to
destroy the cage OF Reason" in manu-
script and never let it go into type, and
writing afterward, in his old days: ''Of
this Jesus of Nazareth have to say that
the system Of morals He left and the re-
ligion He gave US are the best things the
world has ever seen or is likely to see."
Patrick Henry, the electric champion Of
liberty. was enslaved by this delusion, SO
that he says: 1.-THE book worth all other
books put together is the Bible"
Benjamin Rush, the leading psychologist
and anatomist of his day, the great medical
sclentist-what did he saya 1.-THE only
true and perfect religion is Christianity"
Isaac Newton, the leading philosopher Of
his time-what did he say? That man, sur
rendering to this delusion of the Christian
religion, cried out: "The sublimest phi
losophy On earth is the philosophy OF the
Gospel"
whose name every scientist the world over
bows his head-David Brewster SAID: 80,
this religion has been great light to me,
very great light all my days"
President Theirs, the great French
statesman, acknowledged that he prayed
when he said: II invoke the Lord God in
whom am glad to believe"
David Livingstone, able to conquer the
lion, able to conquer the panther, able to
conquer the savage, yet conquered by this
delusion, this hallucination, this great
swindle Of the ages, SO when they find him
dead they find him on his knees.
William E. Gladstone, the strongest in
tellect in England to-day, unable to resist
this chimera, this fallacy, this delusion Of
the Christian religion, goes to the house OF
God every Sabbath, and often, at the invi-
tation of the rector, reads the prayers to
the people.
0, if those mighty intelects are over
borne by this delusion, what chance is
there for you and for me?
Besides that, I have noticed that first
rate infdels can not be depended on for
steadfastness in the proclamation Of their
sentiments. Goethe, leading skeptic,
was SO wrought upon by this Christianity
that in weak moment he cried out: ssMy
literary and moral life.''
Rousseau, one of the most eloquent
champions Of inddellty, spending his whole
life warning against Christianity, cries
out: ''The majesty Of the Scriptures
amazes me-"
Altamont the notorious infidel-one
would think he would be safe against this
delusion of the Christian religion. Oh, no.
After talking against Christianity all his
days in the last hour of his life he cried
out: ''Oh, Thou blasphemed but most in
dulgent Lord God, hell itself is refuge if
it hide me from Thy frownl''
Voltaire, the most talented infdel the
world ever saw; writing two hundred and
fifty publications, and the most Of them
spiteful against Christianity, himself the
most notorious Hbertine Of the country
one would have thought he could have
been depended upon for steadfastness in
the advocacy of infidelity and in the war